Experience, With Energy: Anthony Villalobos believes the right attorney for your case is the attorney with the experience to know what he is doing, but the energy to relentlessly attack. Many attorneys are reactionary, meaning they wait for the other side’s attorney or the prosecutor to act first. Anthony Villalobos despises that mentality. A real, true attorney is the one who has the experience to know how to press the other side to get results, with the energy to sustain that fight for his client.

It’s Personal: The sustained fight for his clients is personal. Ask any attorney you are looking to hire if it is personal. See what they say.

After graduating from UW-Milwaukee in 2008, Anthony Villalobos moved to Chicago. Going to work one morning, Anthony Villalobos was struck by a car. He did what any person would do. He Googled personal injury attorneys and hired one who came up. He was not an attorney yet, but something seemed off when that attorney only wanted to settle. How? He was still in physical therapy and accumulating medical bills that would not be part of his settlement. Anthony Villalobos fired that attorney. By that time, Anthony Villalobos was in law school, so he wrote his own lawsuit and won. After that, Anthony Villalobos made a promise to himself that he would never be like that attorney he initially hired. That Anthony Villalobos would fight for his clients at every turn, always keeping them informed in the process.

His Start: In 2012, Anthony Villalobos graduated from Chicago-Kent, a law school known for its legal writing program and ranked in the top five of all law schools for trial advocacy. In that top trial law school, of more than three hundred graduating classmates, Anthony Villalobos was the first attorney admitted to the federal trial bar because of the high volume of trials he had successfully completed at such an early stage in his career.

For over three years, Anthony Villalobos was constantly in the courtroom, loving every moment representing his clients, getting wins, and gaining so much experience in civil litigation and criminal defense. For better or worse, he had an itch he had to scratch. After court one day, he went to visit an old professor who was a retired Cook County judge. He told him how he always wanted to join the military, but Anthony Villalobos was getting so many courtroom wins that it was hard to step away. That judge told him, “Anthony, if you are going to do it, do it now, or you will be sixty-five at your desk and wonder if you could have.”

His Army Adventures: Anthony Villalobos had the option to become an officer right away because he was already an attorney. However, he wanted to try out to be an Army Ranger. The only guarantee he had to get a tryout was to enlist, so he entered Basic

Training in January 2016, no longer called Attorney Villalobos by judges, but Specialist Villalobos by Drill Sergeants. After completing all of his prerequisite training, he showed up to the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program (RASP) as the oldest Soldier trying out for the 75th Ranger Regiment. He survived Ranger selection, and signed into Alpha Company, 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment as a thirty-one-year-old forward observer. It was painfully amazing; he is still in touch with the boys today. After two combat zone deployments, he left Special Operations in 2019 to get back to practicing law.

After the Judge Advocate Basic Officer’s Course, Anthony Villalobos reported to The United States Military Academy (“West Point”), for his first Judge Advocate General (JAG) position. He was selected to serve as the sole Special Victims’ Counsel (SVC), representing victims of sex crimes and domestic violence. As an SVC, he learned so many things that go into the criminal investigation process, the decision whether or not move a case to criminal trial, and what motivates people to report sex crimes and domestic violence, including false reports.

With his prior Chicago trial experience, his special operations background, and his SVC time Anthony Villalobos had to go to a courtroom. His next JAG assignment was as a Trial Defense Services (TDS) attorney at Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg), which is the largest U.S. military installation. He handled over fifty court-martials in two years and countless separation boards, Article 15s, and other matters Soldiers unfortunately have to face. From the results he was getting and his experience, he was placed as a trial team leader to lead trial strategy and train his younger colleagues. Of all the “thank you, sir” and “no one believed me but you, sir” statements Anthony Villalobos got from my clients after our wins, the statement he loved the most was from a prosecutor on the other side: Anthony, our entire office gets nervous when we see you are the defense attorney on the case. Making prosecutors nervous that you are the lawyer who is going to uncover the truth and get the not guilty for your client is the greatest feeling.

His parting gift to the Army’s criminal defense unit was a massive document he compiled, using all he learned from his Chicago courtroom days, victim representation days, and Army criminal defense days. That document and his insider knowledge were distributed in the TDS mass letter that goes to all Army defense attorneys and his work is still used today.

The premier JAG job is advising commanders. Having a chance to return back to Chicago, his final JAG position was serving as a Command Judge Advocate at a joint service unit, the MEPS headquarters. That position allowed Anthony Villalobos to touch on legal investigations and actions for every service of the Department of Defense and even Homeland Security: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Space Force, and Coast Guard. Anthony Villalobos gained so much experience seeing what commanders want investigated and what actions or non-actions they want to take after an investigation into a servicemember. Getting to guide commanders in the legal process, from court martials to non-judicial punishment to separation boards at a joint service unit, was invaluable.

Experience, With Energy: All of that experience – his own personal injury case success, all of his Chicago civil and criminal trials, special operations and combat zone deployments, representing crime victims, defending Soldiers, advising military commanders – every piece of it is brought with absolute energy when he represents someone. Anthony Villalobos knows what it is like to see your name on a court document. It can be intimidating. You do not have to go it alone. Contact The Law Office of Purav Bhatt and we will aggressively tackle everything together to see you to the success Anthony Villalobos found because he and our team have the experience to see you there, with the energy to accomplish it.

Call our law firm in Chicago, IL today at 773-791-9682 or contact us online to schedule a free and confidential consultation with an experienced trial lawyer.